Pierre Brossollet shares insights on entrepreneurship, overcoming failure, and the resilience needed to build a successful company like Arverne Group.
Pierre Brossollet shares insights on entrepreneurship, overcoming failure, and the resilience needed to build a successful company like Arverne Group. He discusses achieving dreams, believing in oneself, and the importance of humility and magnanimity in leadership roles.
Don't listen [music] to people that will tell you that you cannot achieve either your dream or your objective. You will all righty. Hello everyone and welcome to the Deal Maker Show. So today we have an amazing founder, you know, joining us. We're going to have the battle of accents. We're going to have the French, the Spanglish, you know, a little bit of everything. Why not? But again, we're going to be talking about building, scaling, financing, also, you know, having a company listed, you know, why not? And also, you know, having a company that has raised 220 million euros and also that has 250 employees. So, again, a lot of good stuff to cover, whether is leadership, relationship with failure, uh, and many other things. So, I think that you're all find the conversation today quite inspiring. So without further ado, let's welcome our guest today, Pierre Brussellet. Welcome to the
show. >> Yeah. Hi. Hello. >> So Pierre, originally from France, obviously we can hear in the accent clearly and and and give us a walk through memory lane. You know, I know that growing up your dad was a Navy Seal in the special forces. You guys got to travel quite a bit, but how was life growing up for you? Yeah, for me it was a well I would say u I wouldn't say an easy life but you know my father as you say was moved a lot so it opened my mind and and I I had the chance to see a lot of things growing up uh until my 18 and here I I basically I've done like my brothers I have five brothers and sisters so high school university engineering and um I had a uh I I I jump into the I would say energy and oil and gas by I would say by luck because I choose what got an option in in in engineering school named oil and gas or named offshore and you know like obelix in the potion in the
magic potion I fell into that and I never I never I never left it's like now like a patient but u after my after graduating in civil work I joined total because you know in France it's like the best of the best and uh I >> but but even before that why engineering why the whole problem solving where did that come from? No, because it was not a tradition but it was you know in France you have this kind of excellence uh well what we call well engineering school like poly techchnique like central like we have we have an idea of excellence which is typically French and this is more engineering school than economics or or or like the other kind of of of school so that's why basically and you know by tradition because my father my grandfather my have done this kind of schools also engineering because when you go to the navy you have to go first to become an engineer. So it was like what
what I had to do. So it was not by curiosity or by by open minding like or things like this. It was basically because I've done like my not my family. So nothing magic, nothing very original, but but a lot of interest still for for technical things and and and engineering, but civil work was a choice that I've done personally, but and the option of offshore was like an option that friends of mine brought me to and I I didn't even know was what was energy and oil and gas and as I said, I fell into that and it was like after it was all my life. So this is more than a patient now. So I joined total and uh 10 years of spent all over the world in operation in in in business development uh in Asia in in Africa and in South America that I loved actually um that not only uh gave me an expertise in I would say subsurface but I've shown all the all the uh all the potential of the of our earth and
especially the subsurface and not only in oil and gas. So I learned also this very big paradox. I've seen this very big paradox of oil and gas which has reached a lot of breakthrough technological and technical breakthrough but which is a a nightmare for the planet today. So this paradox made me think at some point that I had better to do and basically this is why I switched and I decided to to found my own company but this is a long story which I will I hope make short but at the beginning it was like okay I discovered oil and gas I discovered subsurface I discovered the world I discovered the needs of the world and I discovered big paradox uh where I I I thought uh at some point that I could help the the energy transition with an expertise, with a vision, but not with definitely I had to do something else. >> What do you think, you know, when you were traveling uh all over the
world, you know, with total um what do you think that that that gave you in in terms of um perspective because, you know, being in different countries, being able to experience different cultures, I'm sure that that also opened up, you know, quite a bit of things on your end. >> No, a lot of things. First even if you if you're right I mean my accent show me that I'm in French because my English is quite bad but first you have to you have to learn you have to learn the people you have to learn the tradition of the countries you have to learn the languages so that's why I speak a few languages but so you have to make yourself to the to the people around you have to to acclimate yourself to basically what is you have to respect the people you have to respect the place so on top of again on top of an expertise it's really a different mindset said so when I came back after 15 years with
my expertise my wife and five kids all born in different countries uh basically I had the feeling that I learned what is life very simply >> now for you as you were alluding to it you know you were for 10 years with total and eventually you decided to shift gears and that was by joining your mentor so how was that journey like because that was quite a pivotal moment in your career and it was the immediate step before you actually went at it as an entrepreneur. >> Yeah. No, definitely you know when you are part of a big organization like total which is an amazing company because uh again in term of expertise I mean there is nothing better than a oil and gas major when when you really have to be to be uh better than the other. So you learn really I mean this is this is amazing but you are part of a very big organization and and I didn't like this actually. So that's why
basically when I met in Indonesia Jean Franuela was was the president of a small gas company named Mor Prom I didn't hesitate one second he proposed me something that even 10 or 20 years after in total I couldn't manage to get uh the basically the management of a full country in South America but uh but it was more than that it was that I I've been attracted by the character and by the personality of this guy who became a mentor and but who was a free guy. I mean he was totally free. He was heading the company but he was not part of networks like like we can be proposed today. He was he was really free and he was he was in love with the risk. He was taking risk but good risk and and I learned a lot of thing with this guy and then when he decided to to sell the company well I I decided not to join the the next team but to uh let's see to to take it my way and and and to create our but I
really have been influenced by by by Jean Franis for his mindset for his he was he was a he was a risk maker or a risk taker I would say but of course with a lot of influence or on on the team. He he was actually was a leader and I like the difference between leader and manager. So he was a real leader >> when the company gets sold um that you are now you know working you know and and that you were introduced by your mentor ultimately that was the um the shift that needed to happen for you to to take action to want to take ownership of your own future and to really bring you know Arver to life. So walk us through how that happened. You know, what were the sequence of events and and how how did you you know get going? >> Well, um it it was a long process actually uh because I spent after 10 years in total, I spent also 10 more years in mor. So it was not like a a quick flash
or I mean just a I woke up one day uh thinking that I could save the world with a with with energy. No, it was like a long process working with Jean Franis and realizing that even if you have to do things properly slowly that you have to work out problems, technical things etc. there is there was a chance to to bring your own uh stone uh on on on in this world of and especially in this energy world. This is not because it's complicated. This is not become because because there you need a lot of investment especially in this business in in in oil and gas or the energy in general that you cannot have an influence. And this is basically what I I tried to catch with Jean Francois is that even if you are alone, even if you are a single person, when you are a leader, you can change things. And it took me some time to realize with Jean Franis that it was my destiny. It was my future. Uh, of
course I'm not…